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Yanks trail in standings, but can control fate

ST. PETERSBURG -- The math of standing eight games out of the division lead with 43 games to play suggests, as Shawn Kelley stated late on Wednesday in Baltimore, that the Wild Card could be a more attainable goal than chasing down the division title.

But Kelley was quick to state that no one in the Yankees' clubhouse would consider catching the Orioles to be out of reach, and captain Derek Jeter has repeatedly pointed out that the Yankees can still take hold of their own destiny in the race.

"We still play everybody," Jeter said. "You know me; I'll tell you, if you win your games, you don't have to worry about anything. You worry about things when you don't play the guys in front of you. We play [the Orioles] eight times. We play the people that are in front of us."

Baseball Prospectus, which calculates playoff odds on a daily basis, pegged the Yankees as having only a 2.8 percent chance to win the division as of Friday morning. BP also didn't love the Yanks' chances of simply making it to the postseason, offering a 4.8 percent chance of winning a Wild Card.

"Obviously you're closer in the Wild Card than you are in the division, but we still have plenty of games left with Baltimore," manager Joe Girardi said. "Our goal will be to win the division, and we'll continue to fight for that, but at the very least, you want to make the playoffs."

Girardi said that there is no reason to speak to his team about keeping the right mindset; he said that his players understand what is at stake. They can take their cues from Jeter, who certainly does not want his final postseason memory to be his shattered ankle in the 2012 American League Championship Series.

"You worry about things you don't have control over," Jeter said. "We have control over what happens. We're not making it easy on ourselves, but we still control it."

Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @bryanhoch and read his MLBlog, Bombers Beat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.